Browse Articles

PCA‐Based Database Mining Enables the Discovery of Bacterial Carbene Transferases for Stereodivergent Cyclopropanation

ABSTRACT Protein engineering is a practical approach to providing enzymes with an “abiotic” catalytic activity. However, it remains difficult to explore the full diversity of natural sequence space through the engineering of a single specific protein. As an alternative to these protein engineering approaches, we here demonstrate a database mining approach using a principal component analysis (PCA)‐based clustering method to facilitate the identification of promising enzyme candidates. As a proof of concept, we applied this method to the cyclopropanation of styrene, and the sequence space of bacterial globins in the database was extensively investigated. By screening 275 globins from 171 different organisms, we successfully discovered enzymes capable of catalyzing stereodivergent carbene transfer reactions. Furthermore, statistical analyses of sequence data allowed us to detect characteristic structural properties of these globins, which determine the unique stereoselectivity of cyclopropanation. While these bioinformatics tools have primarily been applied to predict enzymes’ natural biological functions, this study demonstrates their applicability to exploring enzyme candidates for abiotic reactions unrelated to their native biological activity. Given the increasing interest in biocatalytic applications beyond natural reactivity, this PCA‐based mining approach provides a promising direction for expanding the functional diversity of biocatalysts.

Behavior change intervention targeting physical activity and diet improves stress and sleep

Background Poor diet, low physical activity, high stress, and poor sleep are prevalent modifiable risk factors for chronic diseases. Synergistic effects of interventions targeting diet and activity on other health risk behaviors such as stress and sleep are understudied. Purpose To conduct a secondary data analysis to investigate whether interventions targeting diet and activity produce collateral improvements in stress and sleep. Methods Make Better Choices 2 was a randomized clinical trial to test a technology-assisted coaching intervention with modest incentives to improve diet and activity, as compared to a matched intervention targeting improved stress and sleep. Participants (n = 212) were adults (76.4% female, 59% non-white minority, mean age = 40.8 years) with multiple diet and activity risk behaviors. For 7 days at baseline, 3-, 6-, and 9-months, participants reported perceived sleep duration, stress, diet, and activity through a smartphone application. Outcomes were evaluated by linear mixed models. The study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01249989) . Results Both interventions produced significant, statistically comparable improvements in average daily stress rating (z = 1.35, p = .177). Reduction in average daily stress rating was 1.68 following diet/activity intervention (z = −12.25, P  < .001) and 2.08 following stress/sleep intervention (z = −7.83, P  < .001) on an 11-point Likert scale. Though changes in sleep duration for both groups were clinically meaningful, the stress/sleep intervention produced statistically larger improvements in sleep as compared to the diet/activity intervention (z = −3.79, P  < .001). Sleep duration increased 26.39 minutes following diet/activity intervention (z = 3.16, P  = 0.002) and 92.65 minutes following stress/sleep intervention (z = 5.912, P  < 0.001). Conclusions Findings suggest that diet and activity behavior change interventions can effectively improve outcomes within and between the behavior domains they directly target. Future research should identify common mechanistic pathways to inform development of interventions that efficiently change multiple health behaviors implicated in chronic disease morbidity and mortality.

Circularly Polarized Organic Long‐Persistent Luminescence from Polymer Films Doped with Chiral Cu(I) Complexes

Abstract The development of polymer materials with circularly polarized organic long‐persistent luminescence (CP‐OLPL) remains challenging yet highly desirable. Herein, a polymer‐based OLPL system is prepared by embedding a Cu(I) complex rac ‐NDP‐CuCl into polymethyl methacrylate, which exhibits a high phosphorescence quantum yield ( Φ phos. ) of 64.0% and an emission duration exceeding 3 h under ambient conditions. Moreover, by simply replacing the racemic guest rac ‐NDP‐CuCl with its enantiomers R ‐NDP‐CuCl and S ‐NDP‐CuCl, polymer‐based luminescent materials with CP‐OLPL properties are successfully developed for the first time. These doped polymer films display Φ phos. values and emission durations comparable to those of the racemic system, along with satisfactory asymmetry factors for both circularly polarized phosphorescence and OLPL, reaching up to 4.79 × 10 −3 at room temperature. In contrast to conventional OLPL systems based on binary donor–acceptor doping, the present design facilitates the formation of intermediate charge‐separated states via photoinduced metal‐to‐ligand charge transfer, which are effectively stabilized and spatially separated within the polar polymer matrix, thereby enabling notable OLPL and CP‐OLPL emissions. These findings provide new insights into the molecular design of ambient OLPL materials and open a promising avenue for developing polymer‐based CP‐OLPL systems.

Preliminary study on the distribution and risk assessments of microplastic pollution in surface water in Chengdu, China

Bioengineered ROS-tolerant probiotic reshapes gut microbiota-host axis to ameliorate type 2 diabetes in male mice

Dynamic Iodide Regeneration Enabled by Piperazine‐Tailored PCBM Interfaces for Photothermally Stable and Efficient Inverted Perovskite Photovoltaics

Abstract Molecular iodine release under working conditions remains a major obstacle to the long‐term stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Despite significant progress, developing a simple yet effective strategy to suppress this degradation pathway—while reconciling high photothermal stability and high efficiency without sacrificing charge transport—remains challenging. Here, through integrated molecular design, theoretical modeling, and experimental validation, we develop a new class of piperazine (PA)‐tailored fullerene derivative, PCBM‐PA, that uniquely exhibits dual functionality in iodine capture and dissociation. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that PCBM‐PA promotes I 2 adsorption and I─I bond cleavage at the perovskite surface, facilitating dynamic iodide regeneration. Comprehensive experiments further confirm that PCBM‐PA effectively suppresses I 2 release through robust N···I halogen‐bonding (XB) interactions, while simultaneously promoting I─I bond cleavage and restoration of iodide ions, consistent with theoretical insights. This coupled “iodine adsorption–dissociation” behavior, unprecedented among previously reported XB acceptors, enables dynamic self‐repair of iodine vacancy defects. Consequently, inverted PSCs incorporating PCBM‐PA exhibit outstanding photothermal stability, retaining over 93% of their initial efficiency after 1000 h under maximum power point tracking (MPPT) at 65 °C, together with a champion efficiency of 26.26%. This work offers a new molecular‐engineering pathway toward iodine‐resilient, high‐performance perovskite photovoltaics.

Serving the living and the dead: An integrated approach to Copper Age ceramic production and cultural dynamics in Campania, Southern Italy

This study explores the contribution of large scale integrated pottery analysis to the definition of broader cultural processes and, more specifically, highlights for the first time changes in the role and demand for ceramic objects during the Copper Age in Southern Italy. To identify such trends and drivers of change this study applies a holistic approach to ceramic production integrating typological analysis typical of the Italian tradition with a broader, theoretically informed, technological approach involving macroscopic observations and archaeometric analyses. The study area is Campania, in Southern Italy, where four multi-phase sites were selected spanning through the whole Copper Age (roughly 3800−2100 BC). This study represents the first large scale archaeometric programme on Copper Age contexts from southern Italy and allows us to detect and relatively dating technological innovations (such as the use of moulds and advances in the control of firing) as well as strong manufacturing traditions never previously fully characterised for Copper Age Southern Italy. The combination of typological and technological analyses of different ceramic assemblages highlighted the emergence in the Early/Middle Copper Age of a selected branch of production for complex funerary vessels deposed in collective graves linked to serving and consuming liquids. Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, important socio-economic and cultural dynamics led to a radical change in funerary practices in Central and Southern Italy and in the practical and symbolic role of ceramics in these contexts. Ceramic manufacture became more varied with no evidence of a dedicated funerary production, in fact, only few ceramic vessels, also common in domestic contexts, were generally deposed in single flat graves. This typological, productive and also symbolic disruption led to theorise a shift from a ‘ritual’ to a ‘functional’ demand for ceramic production, embedded in the cultural processes ongoing in this period. This integration of multiple lines of evidence (context, typology and technology) highlights how research on ceramics can contribute to the definition and understanding of larger phenomena at a regional and wider scale such as demands of production as well as symbolic, and economic drivers of change.

Mixture of experts extra tree-based sEMG hand gesture recognition

Abstract Human hand gesture recognition has emerged as a significant research interest in robotic hand control using surface electromyography. It is popular due to its non-invasive nature and ability to capture gesture movements. However, proper handling of overfitting and biases in gesture classification with multiple gestures is a common issue in the development of a generalized classifier. To address this issue, a Mixture of Experts Extra Tree classifier proposes to identify hand gestures. This model utilizes the concept of a Mixture of Experts, which combines individual highly accurate machine learning models (Extra Tree), referred to as experts, each focusing on a specific class, and a fully trained model for all classes, known as the gate (Extra Tree model), is employed to weigh the output of individual expert models. In this study, four subjects performing six hand gesture movements were collected, and their identification was evaluated among eleven models, including the Mixture of Experts Extra Tree classifier. The model was also evaluated on a publicly available dataset containing fifteen gesture classes. Results demonstrate that the Mixture of Experts Extra Tree classifier outperformed the other algorithms considered in this study, accurately identifying hand gesture movements. The MEET classifier achieved accuracies of 86.8%, 89.2%, 87.9%, and 78.4% for four subjects on collected data, and improved mean accuracy by 1.25% on the public dataset.

Engineering NIR-II carbon dots through aniline extension with graphene and nitrogen enrichment for hepatobiliary theranostics

Hetero‐Composition and Homo‐Structure Decoupling Charge and Phonon Properties in p‐Type Thermoelectric SnAgBiTeSe ₂

ABSTRACT The inherent compromise between charge mobility and phonon transport necessitates hierarchical structural modularity to achieve a high figure‐of‐merit ( ZT ) in homogeneous materials. Herein, shifting our focus from conventional grain boundaries to grain interiors, we leverage configurational entropy and metavalent bonding to design a novel SnAgBiTeSe 2 solid solution alloy with a single cubic crystal structure, representing a true hetero‐composition/homo‐structure (heC/hoS) system. Due to its highly polarizable metavalent bonds, the material maintains a uniform macroscopic symmetry, with strain fluctuations at the nanoscale preventing macroscopic phase separation. This dual mechanism strongly suppresses phonon propagation without significantly compromising charge transport. Its electronic structure exhibits a pronounced Rashba effect, which simultaneously modulates both valley and spin degeneracies. This leads to the formation of highly converged, multi‐spin‐split bands that facilitate efficient charge carrier transport. Moreover, owing to the suppression of Bi Ag antisite defect enabled by the heC/hoS architecture, slight Ag doping successfully induces rare p‐type conductivity. These features collectively yield a record‐low lattice thermal conductivity ( κ l  = 0.35 Wm −1 K −1 at 300 K) and high ZT values of 0.42 at 300 K and 0.6 at 402 K for SnAg 1.03 Bi 0.97 TeSe 2 , outperforming all reported AgBiSe 2 ‐based counterparts across the 300–500 K temperature window.

Differences by sex and type of hypertension in mortality from hypertensive diseases between 1997 and 2020, and predictions for 2035 in Latin American and Caribbean countries

Background Hypertension is the most prevalent cardiovascular condition and a leading contributor to premature mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Despite its public health relevance, few studies have examined long-term trends in hypertensive disease mortality across the region. The objective was to analyze trends in mortality due to hypertensive diseases from 1997 to 2020 in LAC countries, disaggregated by sex and type of hypertension, and to project mortality rates to 2035. Methods We conducted an ecological time-series study using age-standardized mortality rates (ASMRs) extracted from the World Health Organization Mortality Database. Mortality from hypertensive diseases was defined by ICD-10 codes I10–I13 and further stratified into primary hypertension (I10) and hypertension-mediated organ damage (HMOD, I11–I13). Trends were assessed using Joinpoint regression to estimate average annual percent change (AAPC) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Projections to 2035 were calculated using Norpred based on age – period – cohort analysis. Results Between 1997 and 2020, mortality from hypertensive diseases increased in most LAC countries. Among men, significant increases were observed in Brazil (AAPC: 2.6%), El Salvador (6.6%), and Panama (6.1%), while Trinidad and Tobago was the only country showing a significant decline (AAPC: −5.7%). Among women, the most marked increase was seen in El Salvador (7.6%). By 2035, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Paraguay are projected to have the highest ASMRs for hypertensive diseases among men, while for women, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela will remain among the most affected. Mortality from primary hypertension represented the greatest burden across countries, while HMOD exhibited lower but variable rates. Conclusion Hypertensive disease mortality is projected to rise in LAC, with notable disparities by sex, country, and type of hypertension. These findings underscore the urgent need for regionally tailored prevention, screening, and control strategies.

Reliable parameter estimation of nonlinear chaotic systems and PMSMs with the stellar oscillation optimizer

Unleashing the power of zero-valent platinum single atoms for enhancing low-temperature oxygen activation

Surface Ferroelectricity in Lead‐Free Nonferroelectric Chiral Perovskites Beyond Neumann's Principle

ABSTRACT According to Neumann's Principle, the chiral‐polar photovoltaic effect (CPPE) is restricted to crystals in one of the five chiral ferroelectric space groups—based on the assumption of perfect long‐range periodicity and bulk symmetry. However, this framework overlooks symmetry breaking at crystal boundaries. Herein, we report the emergence of surface ferroelectricity in a one‐dimensional chiral nonferroelectric perovskite, R / S ‐MPZSbBr 5 (MPZ = 2‐methylpiperazine), achieved through interlayer antiparallel alignment of polar Sb–Br chains. The bulk structure adopts a nonferroelectric phase with alternating polar domains, resulting in net‐zero polarization. Yet, at the (001) surface, the breaking of continuous translational symmetry gives rise to local ferroelectricity. This surface‐driven polarization, coupled with the intrinsic chirality of the crystal, enables a localized CPPE. Moreover, the synergy between surface ferroelectricity and pyro‐photovoltaic effects significantly enhances the performance of self‐powered circularly polarized light (CPL) detection. Our work reveals the limitations of Neumann's Principle at crystal interfaces and opens new avenues for engineering ferroelectricity and chiral optoelectronics in nonferroelectric systems.

Characterization of a spontaneous microphthalmia-like mutant mouse with isolated ocular defects

Microphthalmia is a significant eye defect owing to its profound effects on visual acuity. Microphthalmia accounts for 3.2%–11.2% of blind children. To date, there has been no cure for this disease. In this study, we aimed to identify microphthalmia-like mutant mouse and study its growth and development. In this study, we identified mutant mice exhibiting eye abnormalities using a forward genetics approach in a C57BL/6J cohort. To identify ocular characteristics of the mutant mouse, we conducted systematic evaluations including basic measurements (body length, body weight, and palpebral fissure width), optical coherence tomography (OCT), optomotor response (OMR), and hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining. At early developmental stages, there are notable differences in body length and weight between mutant and normal mice. Mutant mice displayed microphthalmia-like phenotypes, characterized by significantly reduced eyeball and lens sizes as well as decreased anterior chamber depth compared to wild-type controls. Visual impairment was evident in the mutant mice. Mutant mice exhibited rosette-like structures in the retina without impacting other organs of the body. Overall, these results support microphthalmia-like mutant mouse as a valuable tool for studying this congenital ocular malformation.

Analysis of isobaric quantitative proteomic data using TMT-Integrator and FragPipe computational platform

Abstract Isobaric mass tags, such as isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) and tandem mass tag (TMT), are widely utilized for peptide and protein quantification in multiplex quantitative proteomics. We present TMT-Integrator, a bioinformatics tool for processing quantitation results from TMT and iTRAQ experiments, offering integrative reports at the gene, protein, peptide, and post-translational modification site levels. We demonstrate the versatility of TMT-Integrator using five publicly available TMT datasets: clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) whole proteome and phosphoproteome datasets from the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium, an E. coli dataset with 13 spike-in proteins, and two human cell lysate datasets showcasing the latest advances with the Thermo Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometer and TMTpro 35-plex reagents. Integrated into the widely used FragPipe computational platform ( https://fragpipe.nesvilab.org/ ), TMT-Integrator is a core component of TMT and iTRAQ data analysis workflows. We evaluated the performance of FragPipe coupled with TMT-Integrator analysis pipeline against MaxQuant and Proteome Discoverer with multiple benchmarks, facilitated by the bioinformatics tool OmicsEV. Our results show that FragPipe coupled with TMT-Integrator quantifies more proteins in the E. coli and ccRCC whole proteome datasets, quantifies more phosphorylated sites in the ccRCC phosphoproteome dataset, and overall delivers more robust quantification performance compared to other tools.

Ligand‐Engineered Metal–Organic Cages Boost Charge Separation for Efficient Photocatalytic Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide in Pure Water

ABSTRACT Photocatalytic synthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) offers a sustainable alternative to the traditional anthraquinone process, yet its efficiency is often hampered by the rapid recombination of photogenerated charges and the instability of reactive intermediates. Herein, we report a tetrahedral Zn(II) ion coordinated metal−organic cage ( MOC ) C3 constructed from a C 3 ‐symmetric terpyridine ligand incorporating pyridinium units. In pure water under an O 2 atmosphere and without sacrificial agents, C3 exhibits an H 2 O 2 generation rate of 678.15 µmol L −1 h −1 . Moreover, the confined cavity of the MOC is proposed to help stabilize crucial intermediates (*OH from water oxidation and *OOH from oxygen reduction), thereby further promoting the catalytic performance. This work illustrates a ligand‐engineering strategy for photocatalyst design by employing functionalized ligands to construct MOC that primarily improve charge‐separation efficiency and create directional electron‐transfer channels within the cage framework, while the confined microenvironment secondarily stabilizes key reactive intermediates, thus offering a route toward advanced photocatalytic H 2 O 2 generation.

The Platform Messaging Effect (PME): A quantification of how go-vote reminders on social media platforms can influence voting intentions

Over the past decade, researchers have identified and quantified about a dozen new forms of influence made possible by the internet. Although experts have expressed concern about how users may be harmed by social media content, few studies have sought to quantify the extent to which go-vote reminders on such platforms can impact voting. In the present study, we sent go-vote reminders to US voters on a simulation of Facebook and found (a) that interspersing vote reminders in the message feed significantly increased the magnitude of voting intentions (by over 40% under certain conditions) and (b) that vote reminders also had a significant impact on how people might vote. Because reminders of this sort are ephemeral, social media platforms that send vote reminders to users in a partisan fashion might be able to shift the outcomes of close elections without people’s knowledge.

Daily briefing: Neanderthal dad, human mum was more common than the other way round

Unifying non-Markovian dynamics and agent heterogeneity in scalable stochastic networks

Abstract Stochastic processes underpin dynamics across biology, physics, epidemiology, and finance, yet accurately simulating them remains a major challenge. Classical approaches such as the Gillespie algorithm are exact for Markovian, time-independent systems, where propensities depend only on the current state and agents of a given type are statistically identical. While efficient, this framework misses a defining feature of many real systems: heterogeneity and memory at the level of individual agents. Cells may divide or differentiate on distinct intrinsic timescales, individuals may preferentially interact with specific partners, and inter-event-time distributions can deviate strongly from the exponential. We introduce MOSAIC (Modeling of Stochastic Agents with Individual Complexity), a general and scalable framework that embeds agent-specific properties directly into the dynamics. MOSAIC unifies heterogeneous rates, dynamic interaction preferences, and both Markovian and non-Markovian waiting-time distributions within a single stochastic formalism, while retaining Gillespie-like computational cost. Applications to delayed biochemical reactions, competitive immune-cell dynamics, and temporal social networks show that MOSAIC reproduces empirical features that existing methods either miss or capture only at prohibitive computational cost, establishing it as a practical tool for simulating heterogeneous stochastic systems.